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Friday, July 6, 2018

Lesa Holstine

You can't scroll through Facebook right now without running across people congratulating Lesa Holstine on being awarded the David Thompson Special Service Award, which she will receive at Bouchercon in St. Petersburg, Fl this September.

A well-earned, much deserved award.

If you're not a member of the mystery community, you may not know who David Thompson was.

I did not know David personally. We never met in person. I was one of the hundreds that he would send out an occasional note to. Just a quick email saying, "I think you'd like this book!"

He was a man who embodied the spirit of the mystery community - the world of books in general. He left us much too soon, and I think he'd probably be a little baffled, and charmed, by the fact that his name lives on in this award.

And that pleases a lot of people.

I think he'd be pleased with Lesa Holstine receiving this award.

She is a perfect honoree. She's another Book Angel. She, like David, loves to match up people to books she has a knack for knowing they'll enjoy.

There is no one who loves books any more than Lesa.

And she loves reviewing them. It's her way, I think, of helping people find the books they need.

And that's not the only place she shares her love, and knowledge, of books.

She'll never bring it up in conversation, spoken or written, so you may not have known before this award that she also reviews for Mystery Readers Journal, ReadertoReader.com, and in Library Journal. She's the blogger for The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. And the author of the “Mystery Fiction” chapter in Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (7th ed.). She's been a panelist for Sisters in Crime at the Public Library Association’s conference and has served on panels at Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon. She's moderated crime fiction panels at the Tucson Festival of Books.

She's a member of several book groups. She reads to a group of little kids. She volunteers at Ruth's House Women's Shelter.

She's politically active. She puts her time and her money where her mouth is.

All this while working full-time at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library.

And I have never, not once, heard her complain about being too busy.

It's not in Lesa's nature to complain about much of anything, truth be told, which is one of the reasons she is so well loved, so well respected, by so many.

I wanted to send a special toast to a woman whose friendship I cherish.

IT'S ALL RELATIVE

WOMEN'S SPACES WOMEN'S PLACES

CLOTHES LINES from 75 Western North Carolina Women Writers

CLOTHES LINES from 75 Western North Carolina Women Writers

I'm a lover of words and a lover of images.

The photos you see in the blog posts were mostly shot by me or by husband Donald. Or, they're old family photos - a lovely little benefit of being a part of families who recognized the beauty of preserving our history through photography.

If the photos are not ours, I have tried whenever possible to caption or link the photos to their source. This hasn't always been possible as there are a lot of uncredited images available through the internet.

My sincere thanks to the generosity of so many talented photographers who so graciously share their work for so many of us to enjoy, share and learn from.

IF you see a photo here that is a copyright infringement, please send me an email (barleykw @ appstate dot com) and I'll remove it immediately.

Books Read

Every year I promise myself I'm going to keep a log of books I'm reading. And I immediately forget. Then I remember again, but only after I've already read a few books, but can't be sure I'll remember them all and so - - can't bring myself to start the list. It's sort of like missing the first 30 minutes of a movie. I just can't watch it if I've missed the beginning. And being the anal ol' soul I am, I can't bring myself to start a list if I can't be sure it's going to be a complete one.So.I decided to keep a list during 2010 and found it to be a fun thing. Especially for a compulsive list-maker like myself.

FTC Disclosure Notice

FTC has a regulation which went into effect in December, 2009 which says, basically - "Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined." Significantly fined. So. Since I happen to be an amateur blogger who sometimes receives free books, here's my required FTC Disclosure Notice: Dear FTC - Regarding review copies of books obtained for this blog. No other compensation is accepted beyond review copies of books - ever. When I do write a review, or opinion, the source of the book cited will be disclosed in the post in which the review/opinon appears. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.